Jets Fan Who Punched Patriots Fan Killed A Man in 1992

The Jets pulled off a stunning upset over their division rival Patriots squad Sunday, but the win (which involved an infrequently-called field goal-related penalty) has been overshadowed by the post-game punch (!) that a male Jets fan delivered to a female Patriots fan after the game. A video of the brawl went viral yesterday, now having garnered close to 1.5 million views. And the Post reports this morning that the man who levied the strike, 38-year-old Kurt Paschke, has a criminal record, having been convicted of “criminally negligent homicide” in 1992.

Yep, Pashcke, 17 at the time, served four years in jail after killing another 17-year-old outside of a pizzeria with a knife. (He initially was charged with murder, but it was brought down to the less severe charge.) “I am deeply sorry,” Paschke said in 1995 at his sentencing. “I can honestly say I never sought the confrontation, but when it came, I did what I had to do.”

The Post connects this emphasis on self-defense decades ago with the Paschke camp’s response to Sunday’s post-game assault. (So far, no arrests have been made, the paper says.) His mom—who attended the game with him (she’s a breast cancer survivor, and Breast Cancer Awareness month was honored at the game)—said her son “didn’t deliberately hit the girl, he was simply being defensive.”

“There was a group of Patriots fans antagonizing our friends the whole game . . . They were drunk and out of control,’’ she said. “Our friends were in the same row and, for instance, they were even making fun of a girl because she just gotten braces. As my son and I were leaving, the group came charging from behind and said ‘Let’s get them.’ They push through us to get to his friends and start throwing punches. My son wanted to break it up. Then the girl [in the video] was throwing three punches at my son . . . and with that, my son is just trying to protect himself and me.”

Honestly, it’s a bit of a shock the Post hasn’t tracked down this Braces Girl. (Give it time.) The paper did send a reporter to the Boston home of the 26-year-old Patriots fan who has been identified as the victim, but they came up empty, finding only her brother there, who told the reporter “Go screw!” (We assume the Post chose to extract a word there, though who really knows.)